{"id":93631,"date":"2020-10-20T21:26:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/covid-19-fears-turning-nyc-playgrounds-into-war-zones\/"},"modified":"2020-10-20T21:26:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T18:26:00","slug":"covid-19-fears-turning-nyc-playgrounds-into-war-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-fears-turning-nyc-playgrounds-into-war-zones\/","title":{"rendered":"#COVID-19 fears turning NYC playgrounds into war zones"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#COVID-19 fears turning NYC playgrounds into war zones<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Lauren Conlin has seen her share of pandemic playground drama. Once, another mom yelled at her for briefly pulling her mask down so she could sip her iced coffee. \u201cI was about 8 feet away and she said, \u2018Ma\u2019am, can you pull your mask up? Like, there\u2019s a reason we wear these,\u2019\u2009\u201d Conlin, a celebrity correspondent and host of the \u201cRed Carpet Rendezvous\u201d podcast, told The Post. \u201cI didn\u2019t say anything back, but [internally] I was like, \u2018Chill, Karen, I\u2019m nowhere near you!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Another time, a 7-year-old gave Conlin\u2019s 2-year-old son, MJ, a dirty look when the toddler sneezed near her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was probably 6 feet from her, but her face \u2014 she was so scared and so disturbed,\u201d Conlin said. \u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry! He\u2019s not sick! He just sneezed! He\u2019s not wearing a mask because he\u2019s not even 2!\u2019 I felt the need to explain myself to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet nothing matched the pandemonium of a recent Saturday at Central Park\u2019s Billy Johnson Playground \u2014 the one with the famed 45-foot granite slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hectic: The kids were crawling all over each other to get up to the slide with their pieces of cardboard,\u201d said Conlin, 35, who lives on the Upper East Side, referring to the squares regulars sit on for added speed. \u201cThen one little girl started taking her cardboard and hitting another girl with it pretty hard.\u201d Everyone was wearing masks, but hardly distancing. \u201cThere was a huge screaming match [between the parents] .\u2009.\u2009. We were all in shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state closed public playgrounds on April 1, when New York was deep in the throes of the coronavirus. So when they reopened in June, many parents \u2014 after spending months cooped up in apartments with their little ones \u2014 rejoiced. But now, as people who had fled the city during the darker days of the pandemic return, playgrounds have gotten increasingly crowded. Kids who used to play well with others seem to have forgotten how. Add to that parents\u2019 continued anxiety about virus exposure, and it\u2019s a perfect storm for drama.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playgrounds are definitely more tense now,\u201d Conlin said.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren
Lauren Conlin and her family at Pat Hoffman Friedman Playground in Central Park.<\/span>Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Antonio D\u2019Souza, who lives on the Upper West Side and has a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, said he has noticed that children with overly concerned parents seem to have a harder time adjusting to pandemic playground life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a dad following his daughter around the jungle gym, saying, \u2018Don\u2019t touch this; don\u2019t touch that,\u2019\u2009\u201d the 40-year-old engineer recalled. \u201cIt just made her really nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also notes that some children who were either away all summer in houses with yards or who were isolated from other kids seem to have lost their social<\/a>ization skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have friends who only brought their 3-year-old son to the playground for the first time [since March] like, two or three weeks ago,\u201d D\u2019Souza said. \u201cHe had not seen any other kids in six months and he didn\u2019t even know what to do.\u201d D\u2019Souza said that sometimes a parent would bring a clinging kid and set them next to another kid, only for the child to run back to the parent and stay clinging to their legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the child needs most right now is for parents to be calm .\u2009.\u2009. because going to the park will not be a good experience if they feel their parents\u2019 anxiety or tension,\u201d clinical psychologist Judith Zackson told The Post. \u201cThe child needs to understand that the park is still a fun place and it can still be a safe place, but there are just different rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zackson added that if the situation feels too emotionally charged, sometimes it\u2019s best to leave.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Steph McCrory has decided to avoid the park entirely. Her 3-year-old son, Finn, has an autoimmune condition called Mastocytosis that causes lesions on his skin.<\/p>\n

\"Steph
Steph McCrory and her son, Finn at the Astoria Heights Playground in Queens.<\/span>Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEven before the pandemic, we would get the odd little glance, or a mother subtly pulling the child away when [Finn] gets too close,\u201d said the 31-year-old Astoria resident. \u201cBut people are hypersensitive right now .\u2009.\u2009. I see posts all the time on my mommy Facebook groups saying, \u2018I\u2019ve seen this person at the playground without a mask,\u2019 or \u2018This kid pulled their mask down,\u2019 and I knew that tension plus the concern about Finn\u2019s spots was just something I didn\u2019t want to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Finn was initially disapp<\/a>ointed, McCrory has decided to skip the potential stares and hurtful responses from strangers at the playground for scootering around their neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Indeed, stares are the communication currency now that the majority are wearing masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to talk to a stranger in the park when you\u2019re wearing a mask. Some people say the masks are taking away our freedom and taking away our ability to live and communicate. But [the mask] gives us a chance to pay attention to nonverbal cues \u2014 to tone, to the eyes,\u201d Zackson said. \u201cYou can tell a lot when looking at a person\u2019s eyes \u2014 if they\u2019re smiling, if they\u2019re upset. And also to the way that their body behaves \u2014 if they\u2019re moving away from you, if they\u2019re leaning in towards you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Heath
Heath Fradkoff with his family at Mother Cabrini Playground in Red Hook.<\/span>Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dad Heath Fradkoff, for one, says there can be power in a pointed glance: \u201cFor the most part, everyone\u2019s been doing a good job at distancing and keeping safe,\u201d said the 42-year-old, who lives in Red Hook with his wife, 3-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter. \u201cThe outliers get a little of the side eye and they get in line, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Fradkoff said a little discomfort is worth the joy of letting his kids let loose and feeling a part of a community once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a city, New York\u2019s superpower is its ability to come together in a crisis, and it was this superpower that the pandemic took away from us,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting back to the playgrounds feels like a small triumph in light of all that. Watching our kids just be kids for a while \u2014 even if it looks a little different than before, with masks and hand sanitizer at-the-ready \u2014 feels important.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#COVID-19 fears turning NYC playgrounds into war zones” Lauren Conlin has seen her share of pandemic playground drama. Once, another mom yelled at her for briefly pulling her mask down so she could sip her iced coffee. \u201cI was about 8 feet away and she said, \u2018Ma\u2019am, can you pull your mask up? Like, there\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/lauren-conlin-matt-conlin-mj-paisley-.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[76409,70344,4953,70560,73414,74148],"class_list":["post-93631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-20-20","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-new-york-city","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-advice","tag-playgrounds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}